NHPCO Updater

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

NHPCO is investing in tools and resources to support community-based palliative care program development, implementation, and sustainability.

We have several resources available under the Palliative Care tab on our website. We also have the“Find a Provider” map accessible from the home page using the drop down to switch the search to Palliative Care Provider. Please make sure we have up to date information on your program(s), especially hospice members that have added palliative care programs in recent years. You need to “get on the map!”

Our 2018 Management and Leadership Conference preconference offering, Community-Based Palliative Care:Getting Started and Making it Work (April 21 & 22), is an excellent place to start for programs that are exploring program development, are early in their program implementation, or are struggling with sustainability. The last two palliative care preconference events had an average session rating of 4.8 (out of a 5 point scale, with 5 being the highest rating). Here are some comments from participants: “I will update my strategic plan with this new information” and “This information directly impacts the trajectory of our palliative service line.”

Next steps include reactivating the Palliative Care Council. Dr. Balu Natarajan, Chief Medical Officer for Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care and NHPCO Board member, will serve as our Council Chair. The Council will identify exemplary programs to be practice examples for our Palliative Care Toolkits. That is right, we heard you! We know you are asking for practical tools to help you develop, implement, and sustain community-based palliative care programs. We also know you have limited dollars to dedicate to association memberships, so let us fill this need for you by being your one-stop shop for hospice and palliative/advanced care resources. The Council will also explore ways NHPCO can support data collection so our palliative programs can demonstrate value to their various stakeholders, including consumers, health systems, health plans (payers), board of directors, legislators, etc.

Thank you for your patience. We know NHPCO has some catching up to do to meet your palliative care needs. That is why I am here. My background is strong in the clinical and administrative operations of hospice and innovative palliative care programs in both rural and urban settings. I am passionate about moving the hospice model upstream without sacrificing the value and timely connection of patients to traditional hospice services. So please help me, help you. Reach out to me and share your dreams, aspirations and pain points about developing, implementing, and sustaining a palliative or advanced care program. We want to highlight programs that are being successful with palliative and advanced care programs. Let’s start some synergy between those that are being successful within our membership and those that are striving to get there. We are the experts in community-based holistic person-centered care for seriously ill individuals and their families. We got this!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

We have enough grief and loss without inflicting it upon
ourselves.We are heartbroken by the
school shooting in Florida, as we were heartbroken by the shooting in Las Vegas,
Orlando, Sandy Hook, and beyond. I am sorry to those who feel that it is not
our issue, and not my role.As a leader,
a father, a husband, and a human being, I feel compelled to write every time we
witness these tragedies.I wrote the
following thoughts after the Las Vegas shooting, and I share them again today—

“As hospice professionals, we know that grief and loss are a
part of life.But there is enough grief
and loss. There is simply no place in a civilized society for the blatant
disregard for human dignity that we saw in [Florida].Let us also remember that 100 people die from
gun violence every single day—in America’s cities, of suicide, and sometimes in
mass shootings.This has to stop.Thoughts and prayers are not enough.America needs grief counseling, to be sure,
and we’ll be called upon to provide it.But let’s recommit ourselves to making sure that we do more than
that.Whatever our political leanings
and religious beliefs, I think we can all agree that innocent folks should not
be killed.In the coming months, I’m going
to be talking more about how hospice and palliative care professionals can be
leaders in helping America cope with its many challenges."

Thursday, February 8, 2018

I enter February, 2018 with almost a year under my
belt. 2017 was a whirlwind of learning
and listening, meeting new friends, and sketching out our future. My travels have filled my heart, head, and
belly- with amazingly dedicated professionals, sharp leaders, and fried bologna
sandwiches, in that order. If 2017 was a
year for education and listening, 2018 is a year for change and action.

Change is not just on the horizon – it’s already here. Accountable Care Organizations, Independence at Home, Value Based Purchasing and various other models are competing for patients and scarce Medicare dollars. As I traveled the country last year, I heard concern about that change. But along with that concern, I heard many common themes that give me hope for our collective future – a shared set of values, a commitment to the patients and families we serve, and a communal pride that we are the absolute best at what we do. These principles – which emanate from the heart of hospice – are what will serve as the guiding principles for action in 2018 and beyond:

We are the interdisciplinary, person-centered,
integrated, coordinated benefit that Medicare has been covering for over 35
years. What is secondary and new to the
rest of Medicare, is central to Hospice.

We do much more than provide care to individuals—we care for caregivers and communities as well.

We must better communicate our value to our payers and partners—government, managed care, and all other three and four-letter words in between.

Once we establish that foundation, we must energize ourselves—and our volunteers and caregivers—to make sure that we communicate our value to legislative and regulatory decision makers.

Having energized ourselves and communicated our value, and having established a solid foundation, it is time to boldly establish a more durable vehicle for providing more care, without arbitrary rules (6 months, no concurrent care) and that is not subject to burdensome and non-productive oversight and compliance activity.

Concurrently, we will focus on pre-hospice serious illness care that is informed and motivated by the same focus on interdisciplinary, person-centered care. Not emanating from clinicians, institutions or algorithms, this team-based approach has been our bedrock for over 35 years and will continue to be at our core going forward.

I look forward to moving ahead without forgetting our past.
We are the original interdisciplinary, person-centered, population health
movement. We welcome everyone else’s interest—and that includes Amazon—but I
submit that they have as much to learn from us as we have to learn from them. I’m grateful to lead NHPCO at this important
time, and look forward to working with and for all of you in the coming
years.

Monday, February 5, 2018

BackgroundIn January 2017, theGordon and Betty Moore Foundation
awarded the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care (NCHPC)
and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Foundation a two-year grant to
update the National Consensus Project (NCP) Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care to be inclusive for all people with serious illness, regardless of setting, diagnosis, prognosis, or age.

Building on the success of the NCP Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Care, 3rd edition (2013),
this two-year project involves national stakeholder organizations,
including representatives from a broad range of care settings,
accrediting bodies, payers, and community services organizations.
Previous versions of the NCP Guidelines were more applicable to
specialist level palliative care within hospital and hospice settings,
and the new NCP Guidelines will be broadened to encompass palliative
care delivery by all clinicians caring for the seriously ill in all care
settings.

NCP Stakeholder Strategic Directions Summit

To launch this effort, a NCP Stakeholder Strategic Directions Summit
was held June 29-30, 2017 to bring together key national organizations
to discuss and define essential elements of quality primary and
specialty palliative care services in the community. The Summit was
attended by 58 representatives from 43 national/regional organizations,
that covered a broad range of care settings, provider associations,
accrediting bodies, payers, and community services organizations.

What's New and DifferentBased on the feedback from the Stakeholder Summit, each of the eight domains for the 4th edition will include guidelines and criteria re:

Care coordination

Caregiving

Care transitions

Communication

Comprehensive assessment

Cultural inclusiveness

Also, clinical and operational implications, practice examples,
evidence-based references, and a list of specific tools/resources will
be provided for each domain.In addition, a systematic review with a formal grading of the
evidence is being added to the original project scope to align with the
criteria required for inclusion in the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality (AHRQ) National Guideline Clearinghouse™.Project TimelineWith the addition of the systematic review, the publication date for the National Consensus Project (NCP) Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, 4th Edition, is set for fall 2018. To stay informed about the latest updates with the 4th edition, visit www.nationalcoalitionhpc.org/ncp-guidelines-2018.

National Consensus Project Leadership

Includes representatives from nine member organizations of the
National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care and representatives
from seven other national organizations, and subject matter experts.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

When I was working in the hospice provider community as a development and communications professional, I was eager to find peers in similar hospice organizations to network with. I worked at a small, rural, non-profit and was a department of one.

I was thrilled to learn that NHPCO had a group called the National Council of Hospice and Palliative Care Professionals or NCHPP. I was even more excited to learn that the online networking community MyNHPCO existed, giving me the ability to participate in discussions and learn more about what my peers were working on in their own organizations. I had the ability to connect with others who worked for similar sized organizations and dealt with the same challenges and opportunities that I had dealt with.

When I attended my first MLC, I participated in the NCHPP networking lunch on the first day of the conference. It was so great to meet like-minded professionals in person, and share ideas and struggles.

Now that I’m working on the “other side,” I’m learning more about how valuable NCHPP and MyNHPCO are to our members. NCHPP is community of 14,000 strong and continues to grow every day. If you aren’t connected, what are you waiting for?

NCHPP
NCHPP is a collaborative of 15 discipline-specific groups advancing end-of-life care within their discipline and through interdisciplinary collaboration. NHPCO members can choose a primary and secondary section.

MyNHPCO
NHPCO’s online professional networking community connects you with other hospice and palliative care professionals. You will find a community for your NCHPP sections as well as several others that might interest you. You can share your professional expertise and find solutions to challenges through discussion boards, direct messages, and a comprehensive resource library.

One of the most exciting features of NCHPP is the free monthly chat opportunities. Most NCHPP sections hold a monthly chat on a topic relevant to the section. Chats are coordinated by the section steering committee and are led by experts in the topic they are instructing. In 2017 the NCHPP community held 82 chats with over 10,400 attendees. Chat topics included:

Even though you are encouraged to designate only a primary and secondary NCHPP section in your member record in the official database (this is done through the “my account” prompt you may access when logged into nhpco.org}, you can attend chats and follow the activity in other sections through MyNHPCO. If you think there are other sections that might have information relevant to your job or would be of interest, sign up to be a part of that community on MyNHPCO and you will receive chat notifications. You can sign up for as many MyNHPCO communities as you wish.

I hope you will take advantage of this extremely valuable NHPCO member benefit. Connecting with peers who understand your profession and are eager to share and develop ideas together is priceless. Together we are building a stronger hospice and palliative care community! Join the conversation today.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

NHPCO congratulates Alex Azar on his Senate confirmation as
United States Secretary of Health and Human Services this week.

“The appointment of Alex Azar puts a seasoned leader at the
helm of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and NHPCO looks
forward to working collaboratively with Secretary Azar and his staff to ensure
that all Americans have access to person-centered, family-oriented, interdisciplinary
care – something that has been a hallmark of hospice care for four decades,” said
Edo Banach, NHPCO president and CEO.

Secretary Azar’s experience with hospice, referenced in his
nomination hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
on Nov. 29 of last year, will prove an invaluable asset as he leads the
department whose mission is to enhance and protect the well-being of all
Americans. The hospice and palliative care community appreciate his
understanding of quality care during this important period and looks forward to
working to advance efforts to ensure all people receive the right care at the
right time.

“Given the hospice and palliative care community’s
collective experience of providing interdisciplinary, person-centered care, we
firmly believe that we can work with HHS to help address issues facing health
care delivery and point to solutions from our experience,” said Banach.

Don't find your organization in the headlines. Hear from top legal experts in this Webinar collaboration between the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. Understand fraud and abuse, the audit process, steps to prevent allegations of fraud and abuse and response to audits if they occur. Lessons learned from providers that have experienced audits will be shared.

Most importantly, guidance on how to prepare for additional scrutiny and audits and what actions responsible leaders should take will be discussed in detail.

About Us

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization is the oldest and largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. The organization is committed to improving end-of-life care and expanding access to hospice and palliative care with the goal of profoundly enhancing quality of life for people dying in America and their loved ones. NHPCO also works closely with other organizations that share an interest in end of life care.